The FratellisIn Your Own Sweet Time

The Fratellis are one of those bands you know, even if you don't think you do, thanks to their track "Flathead" fuelling one of the early iPod commercials from the mid 2000s. Remember the colourful clip with the silhouettes dancing? Yeah, that one!

Equal parts blessing and curse, the Scottish trio never quite maintained the momentum. Nevertheless, they continued releasing music, and while maybe not reaching Apple levels of ubiquity, they've found a nice little following that eats up their delightful mix of rock, swing and cabaret sounds.

Enter In Your Own Sweet Time, which ditches that almost-vaudevillian flair on past tracks like "Creepin Up the Backstairs" to go all in on big rock ballads.

These are tracks that feel slower than previous Fratellis offerings, though excellent orchestral accompaniment breathes plenty of life into them, like on the powerful "Star Crossed Lovers." Things get messy only once, on "I Guess I Suppose," a track that's just the sort of dad rock nobody wants to hear, complete with math jokes (they use "E=MC2" to rhyme with "everywhere.") "I've Been Blind," on the other hand, has stadium sing-along written all over it, thanks to a hook that's just begging to be belted out loud.

The reality is the Fratellis won't be attracting a new generation of listeners with In Your Own Sweet Time. But is that really a problem? While not a particularly daring record, old school Fratellis fans will unquestionably be satisfied with their most consistent release in well over a decade.

While it's in one sense unfair to shackle the group to a past moment of glory, it's near impossible not to when their track was associated with one of the biggest brands in music. Fortunately the brothers Fratelli have long since found their sound and audience and are doing their own thing, just the way both parties want it.
(Cooking Vinyl)